Social Media: 5 Reasons to Schedule Your Posts
Many brands do know the importance of having a strong presence on social media. However, getting your digital marketing right isn’t always as easy as it looks. One potential problem is posting too much content at the same time and having little material at other times. Alternatively, you may forget to post as it’s easy to become busy with other aspects of your business. One possible solution to this problem is to schedule your posts using a social media dashboard. In this article, the topic will be looked at in further detail. 1. Scheduling allows you to post during different hours The problem with posting content in real time is you are restricted to the hours you want to work on your social media. Not every business has the luxury of a separate digital marketing department, so time spent on social media may be time taken away from other aspects of your business. However, by scheduling your posts, you can take back control of your time. Of course, it takes a bit of planning to do this – but overall this allows you to have top quality content without having to spend all your time doing it. It is also an excellent initiative for global businesses that may want to post social media content outside of their usual business hours. 2. Keep posting on social media during holiday periods Another one of the significant advantages of scheduling your posts is the ability to keep social media content going during holiday periods. Anyone familiar with digital marketing knows that going quiet for an extended period can be dangerous. Using a social media dashboard though means, you can plan content to be posted days or even weeks in advance. The significant advantage of being able to schedule your posts here means you can take a holiday and still have social media content going out. Alternatively, the person doing your digital marketing can take a break if they schedule posts in advance. Overall, this offers great flexibility on your time for your content. 3. Scheduling prevents you from forgetting to post It’s so easy to start your social media strategy off with the best of intentions and some engaging content for a few days. However, when you are treating it day by day, it’s easy to neglect your social media once you get busy with other aspects of your business. So, this is yet another critical benefit of scheduling your posts in advance. For example, you can give yourself a base of a few posts scheduled in advance knowing you have the minimal level of social media content covered. Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t add more later; it’s merely a way of ensuring something is going out each day. You can go even further than that and maximise your social media content in this way, just checking in from time to time to respond to comments and questions. 4. Organising your posts in advance helps to establish a formula There are different ways to approach social media. However, creating every post from scratch can be time-consuming, especially if you are doing a lot of visual content. A better thing to do is have several set templates you can edit as required. Scheduling allows you to get into a healthy rhythm for doing that. The thing is you want to avoid putting yourself in the position of wondering what to post next. Also, the more you get used to posting content in advance, the easier the whole process will get. You can establish trends on your posts this way and work out if your templates or strategy needs changing at all. 5. Scheduling makes it easier to be consistent Going back to one of the previous points, you can set-up your content in such a way that you schedule all your content and check in now and again. If you do things this way, you can ensure you are posting the same number of posts each day, and your audience will get used to what to expect from you. Of course, it’s accurate enough to say your audience probably isn’t counting each post to see you are posting the same amount each day. However, they will get a general idea of how much content there is on a day to day basis. In other words, they will notice if some days you are busy and on other days you are quiet. Scheduling means you are far less likely to run into this problem. While the vast majority of brands now recognise the need to have a solid social media strategy. Getting things right can still be a significant challenge. Your time is valuable, and you don’t want to spend it all on your social media. This article has looked at how scheduling your updates can be the perfect solution to this problem.
How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Brand
Instagram is an extremely powerful tool that, in the right hands, can be used to successfully promote a brand. Having a presence on Instagram is a cheap and effective way of communicating your ideas and products directly to potential customers while simultaneously increasing the strength of your brand. Many businesses fail to recognise the immense opportunity that Instagram presents as a marketing device and miss out on the benefits a well-run account can bring to an organisation. These five tips will help you to simply and easily manage an Instagram account that will successfully promote your brand. 1. Bio Firstly, you need to write a bio for your account. This is simply a few sentences succinctly describing who you are and what you do. State your business name and spend some time creating a catchy description of your trade. Most Instagram accounts are kept informal but you should write a tonally appropriate bio for your brand. The most important aspect of a bio is that it is informative. Users who view your page should be able to instantly recognise who you are and what you do. The longer they need to spend reading to figure out that information, the less chance you’ll have of the user clicking the follow button. Sign off with a link to your website so users can click through if they wish. 2. Theme The most effective brand accounts all stick to a theme. If all of the images you post are disjointed and unrelated, users will be less willing to follow as they won’t know what to expect in the future. Choose a theme that is based around the brand you want to promote and create a set of guidelines that should influence all future posts. Every post should, of course, be different but they need to be similar enough in tone and style for your brand to become recognisable over time. Reliability and consistency are always important aspects of building an online following. 3. Quality Everything you post on your Instagram account is an extension of your brand and will be forever associated with your business. For this reason, it is vitally important that you adhere to an appropriate level of quality at all times. The most efficient way of ensuring high-quality posts is to draw-up a style guide that anyone who takes charge of the account must consult before posting. It is well worth investing in camera equipment, editing software and a professional photographer if you have the budget. Competition is fierce and anything you can do to stand out could be crucial to your success. 4. Share The main point of social media is to connect with people. On Instagram, posts that go viral generally have a unique quality that makes people want to share the image. Before you post anything, consider whether the end-user would be compelled to share it. Ask a question of your followers in the caption and use relevant and trending hashtags to increase visibility. You can also host competitions and giveaways that encourage users to share your post in exchange for the opportunity to win a prize. Anything you can do to incentivise users to spread your content far and wide could make a real difference to the number of people that follow your account. 5. Link Finally, visitors to your account should always be aware of how they can find out more about your brand and business. A common method of doing so is to simply provide a link to your site in the caption every time you post. This enables anyone who views the post to follow the link if they want to find out more. There is, however, always a risk of coming across as too corporate and soulless. The links to your site should always be the secondary focus of a post rather than the primary. Provide value to the user before supplying them with a link that complements the content. Instagram, when used correctly, can be a fantastic marketing tool. Businesses of any size can utilise the platform to grow their potential customer base and advertise their products or services to the right people. Creating an effective Instagram account isn’t a complicated process but, surprisingly, many companies get it wrong or outsource it unnecessarily. Through the considered application of these five tips, your Instagram will go from strength to strength and your follower count will skyrocket.
How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn
As the world’s most used networking platform, LinkedIn has the potential to be an incredibly powerful tool. Whether you’re looking to expand your network, increase your marketing reach or simply to find a new job, LinkedIn can be extremely efficient and useful. However, many people don’t know how to use the website to its full potential and end up wasting the huge opportunity it presents. These five tips will help you improve your presence on LinkedIn so that you can utilize it more effectively. 1. Profile A user profile on LinkedIn is like a more dynamic version of a CV. Strangely, many users of the site fail at the first hurdle by simply neglecting to dutifully fill out their profile page. An incomplete profile will be ranked poorly by the site’s search algorithms, so your details will be viewed less often by other interested parties. Think of your profile as an extension of your personal brand. Choose a clear, professional picture and supplement it with an appropriate banner image. Summarise your occupational history clearly and succinctly, making the most pertinent information easily readable. If your profile shines, you will find it easier to make connections with relevant individuals and companies. 2. Connect LinkedIn is a networking platform, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Use the connect feature to link up with anyone in your industry and pay attention to what they share on their respective profiles. By amassing a large number of connections, you gain the potential to interact and collaborate on future projects. Not everyone will accept unsolicited connection requests, so it’s often beneficial to add a note to the invite briefly explaining who you are and what you do. Most people are happy to make relevant connections and you can soon build a vibrant and engaging network of like-minded professionals. 3. Converse Don’t rest on your laurels after you’ve officially connected with other professionals. Start a conversation and engage with as many people as possible. You can directly message people, but don’t pressure them into replying or bother them if they ignore you. There are plenty of other opportunities to converse, so don’t worry if one doesn’t work out. The best conversations start when you have something meaningful and relevant to say. Read the person’s profile and recent posts before messaging them with something they might find genuinely useful or interesting. By initiating conversations, you can start to build relationships that may bear fruit in the near future. 4. Endorse One of LinkedIn’s stand-out features is the ability to endorse other people’s skills. This means you can vouch for a user when they claim to possess a desirable ability. Peruse the profiles of people you know and endorse any skill that you’re sure they possess. Most users will return the favour and your profile will be much stronger as a result. In addition to endorsements, you can also leave personalised recommendations for specific users. This is a feature where you essentially write a review of a person you’ve worked with for other users to see. A profile with several personal recommendations will stand out from the crowd and be much more desirable to any interested parties. 5. Share Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn is a great way to share content. You can either share things created by other people or produce your own. If you’re in a creative industry, this is a viable method of getting your portfolio seen by the right people. If not, it’s still a fantastic way to spark conversation and instigate healthy debate. One of the biggest benefits of sharing content specifically on LinkedIn is that it will be seen by a very specific set of people. If your network is comprised of individuals and companies from your own industry, you know exactly the market to whom you’re pitching. LinkedIn is a powerful resource that often goes under-utilised by the very people that stand to benefit the most from its use. In the right hands, a LinkedIn account can be a tool for finding a new job, expanding your professional network or even making content go viral. The professional applications for the site are immense and users around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the massive opportunity that LinkedIn represents.
7 Reasons Your Small Business Should Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Does your small business have a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy? If not, you should consider investing in one. Even if your small business doesn’t sell its products or services online, SEO can help it succeed in several ways. What Is SEO? SEO is a form of digital marketing that involves fine-tuning your small business’s website, as well as building backlinks, to achieve higher rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant and meaningful keywords. Websites aren’t just randomly placed in the SERPs. Rather, search engines use highly advanced and complex algorithms to calculate where websites rank in their SERPs. By performing SEO, you’ll optimize your website so that it’s viewed more favorably by search engines and, therefore, outranks other websites competing for the same organic traffic. 1. Costs Less Than PPC Advertising SEO requires a lower monetary investment than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. If you advertise your website on Google using PPC ads, you might pay $1 to $2 per click. If your PPC ads attract just 100 visitors per day, that’s $700 to $1,400 in ad clicks per month. While an effective SEO strategy may require the use of paid services or tools, the total cost is significantly lower than that of PPC advertising. Whether SEO drives 100 or 1,000 visitors to your website, you won’t be charged per organic click. 2. Measurable Results With its measurable results, you can easily track the performance of your small business’s SEO strategy. There are tools like Moz’s Rank Tracker and Ahref’s Rank Tracker that, as their names suggest, will track your website’s search rankings. You don’t have to manually search for your target keywords on Google or Bing to see where your website ranks. Using one of these tools, you can watch your website’s search rankings increase in response to SEO. 3. Increased Brand Visibility SEO allows you to build a stronger brand for your small business. According to a 2019 report published by the Pew Research Center, nine in 10 Americans use the internet. You can introduce these users to your small business’s brand by performing SEO on your website. After customizing your website’s design with your small business’s logo, colors, fonts or other brand elements, perform on-page and off-page SEO to increase its search rankings. As more users discover it listed at the top of the SERPs, your small business will benefit from increased brand visibility. 4. Reach More Prospective Customers You’ll reach more prospective customers using SEO. According to Google, over two-thirds of all U.S. consumers use Google during their buying journey. Some consumers may search for product demos, whereas others may search for a business’s address or phone number. Regardless, your small business will reach more prospective customers if you perform SEO on your website. When a prospective customer searches for a keyword associated with your small business on Google or Bing, he or she may find your website. Neglecting to perform SEO on your website, on the other hand, will result in missed sales opportunities as these consumers land on your competitors’ websites instead. 5. Long-Term Value SEO offers long-term value for your small business. Once your website has achieved high search rankings, it will continue to attract organic traffic for months or even years. Granted, it’s normal for search rankings to fluctuate, meaning your website’s rankings could drop. But if you use an effective, white-hat SEO strategy, you’ll likely discover higher and more consistent rankings with minimal fluctuations. 6. Beat Your Competitors You can use SEO to beat your small business’s competitors and increase its market presence. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), the United States now has over 30 million small businesses. With this number growing larger each year, competition is a major challenge faced by small business owners. Statistics show, however, over one in three small businesses don’t have a website. And many of the small businesses with a website fail to perform any SEO. If you put forth the effort to create and optimize your website, your small business can beat its competitors. 7. It’s Non-Disruptive Unlike many other marketing techniques, SEO is non-disruptive. You aren’t forcing users to visit your website, nor are you disrupting their online activities with intrusive ads or other promotional content. If a user wants to visit your website, he or she can. And because it’s non-disruptive, SEO promotes happier, more satisfied customers for your small business. SEO isn’t the only way to market your small business online. You can also use social media, guest blogging and PPC ads. Of those online marketing tactics, though, SEO excels in nearly every way.
5 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is more powerful than ever. In fact, for many consumers, the first time they hear about new products and services is via social media. There’s a whole population out there who are constantly checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other channels, and smart businesses need to ensure they’re seen by their target demographic. So, how can your business perfect its social media marketing strategy for the modern day? There are many approaches, some more successful than others. Here are five effective ways to boost your social media marketing. 1. Adapt to Different Platforms Social media marketing requires a multi-channel approach. New social media platforms are cropping up all the time, and the best businesses stay ahead of the competition by constantly adapting. Recent statistics from the GlobalWebIndex flagship report show that Facebook still has the most users, although YouTube edges it out in regular active users. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, SnapChat, and Instagram are also all extremely popular. Does that mean Facebook is the best platform for your business? It’s definitely important to have a Facebook account, but some businesses may find it easier to reach a younger demographic on platforms such as SnapChat and Instagram. It’s essential to refine your approach for each channel. Facebook is best-suited to ads and customer care. Twitter allows you to use short-form posts and memes to grab people’s attention. Instagram can be useful for advertising products, video advertisements, and visual viral content. Make the most of every platform you can to expand your reach. 2. Reach Out to Influencers One of the most impactful social media marketing techniques of modern times is to connect with social media influencers. These are users of platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube who have a large base of followers who listen to them. Companies make use of this in many ways. For instance, cosmetics companies often offer free samples to beauty YouTubers to review for promotion. Some even pay Instagram celebrities and Twitter influencers to post regular advertisements for their products. A key advantage to reaching out to influencers is it can often be a way to hit your target market directly. For instance, if you sell fitness products, fitness Instagrammers will have a huge base of like-minded followers to promote your products to. If you sell gaming gear, Twitch promoters and gaming YouTubers can help you hit your target demographic. You may need to spend some money to get the most out of social media influencing. However, it’s a strategy that can truly go a long way if you pick the right influencers. 3. Schedule Regular Posts Dead social media channels can result in you losing potential customers. If someone sees a Twitter feed for a company hasn’t been updated in over a year, they may assume the site is dead or simply has nothing worth checking out. No matter which channels you use, aim to create regular posts. Many companies now hire social media experts to keep all platforms running. It’s best to schedule posts in the morning, at lunchtime, and at the end of the work day- this is generally when most users check their social media feeds. This doesn’t mean you or your employees have to constantly time their posts. In fact, it’s easier than ever now to schedule social media thanks to a range of helpful web apps. For instance, Hootsuite and Buffer allow you to schedule posts across multiple channels all throughout the week. It’s something that can take a few minutes but have a very positive impact on your sales. 4. Collect Analytics In order to maximize your social media marketing, you’ll need to keep a keen eye on what’s working and what’s not. Watching your follower count and reactions to your social media posts will help with this. But as your social media reach grows, you’ll need a simpler way to keep track of everything. This is why many companies turn to social media analytics tools. These can collect all kinds of data, such as how many views your social media posts draw and even how many convert into sales. What’s more, they can do it in a way that’s very easy for you to read and digest. Buffer, Sprout, and Hootsuite are three popular examples. While some of these tools have free versions, many businesses pay for the premium versions in order to get the most out of them. Regardless of which tool you use, keep track of social media analytics and adapt your approach accordingly. Maybe you find out a particular type of content is attracting more views, or one platform is bringing you the majority of your customers. This can help you identify how to target your efforts and increase your success. 5. Ramp Up Your Promotional Tactics The most important thing is to promote your company well. Part of this is keeping a positive presence on social media, helping with customer queries, and raising brand recognition. However, there are some promotional tactics which can really give you a boost. Hosting a competition can instantly draw some attention to your company, even if people have never heard of you before. For instance, some stores offer a prize draw for free products for anyone who follows them on Twitter. Similarly, you can offer a promotional code to anyone who follows you. Giving 5 percent off to every new customer who follows you on Twitter and makes a purchase can be a surefire way to increase sales. You can also encourage your customers to refer friends to your site for reward points. Viral content is also a winner, although it can be unpredictable. Be sure to create click-worthy content such as interesting blogs, fun video ads, and memes to get people’s attention on social media. Conclusion Social media is an incredible tool for your business, so make sure you utilize it well. Adapt to new platforms to reach your target market and create interesting content that’ll get people’s attention. It also helps
